Midwinters west for the past 40 years (in Mexico) was also an Area Championship event. It is no longer. The name of the regatta was given to the Lake Havasu fleet with the Area Championship designation given to San Diego's Fleet 4 (San Diego Classic) for their regatta in June. The Midwinters West in Lake Havasu will be a regular 2 day event.

Ft Lauderdale? You gotta be kidding? That's so far down the peninusula that it's impractical for many of us to attend. A more centralized location on the upper Gulf Coast or farther north on the Altlantic side would put the event within reach of a lot more people. We really enjoyed having some Division 7 sailors and crews from the Northeast come down to Mississippi last year. Ft Lauderdale would add another day to their drive, coming and going.

Despite the brief rant in my previous post, I do want to commend the folks in Ft Lauderdale for stepping up and offering to host a regional regatta. If this ultimately ends up being the venue I'm sure they'll do a great job. We need more volunteerism and I don't want to discourage that. I didn't mean to step on anyone's toes, but my original point based on geographical concerns for a REGIONAL event still stands.

Huh. Real reason: There are more active Hobie Fleets in Iowa than there are in Florida. Makes no sense. IF we start having some good events ALL over the state, hopefully we'll kick start some fleets in to becoming more active (like they used to be) and get the areas moving again. I would love to see this event in Daytona in the next few years too. Case in Point: Pascagoula MS had a good showing and have a bunch more active Hobie guys than they had before. Worked out well. We'll see how the mini mege in Biloxi shapes up the Gulf Coast in June. THAT is the reason for looking to other parts of the south to move this event around in. As far as MWW west goes, the Area champs is in San Diego this year and LHC will be hosting an early season event (in Feb I believe) and with permission, can call it the MidWinters event. Ft Lauderdale is having their 100th anniversary of their town, the weekend they want to do the event, and it will be a big deal.As far as regional events go: You are always welcome to host a regatta, contact Bridget Quatrone and she can help get you started.

Ft Lauderdale? You gotta be kidding? That's so far down the peninusula that it's impractical for many of us to attend. A more centralized location on the upper Gulf Coast or farther north on the Altlantic side would put the event within reach of a lot more people. We really enjoyed having some Division 7 sailors and crews from the Northeast come down to Mississippi last year. Ft Lauderdale would add another day to their drive, coming and going.

phooey, when you're driving 20+ hrs what's a few more? It takes me ~22 to get to P'Cola, 27hrs to Clearwater, and about ~34hrs to get to the keys. I've been to Florida, (mostly Clearwater), six times in the past two years!

but then again, not everybody puts 20k miles a year behind them for sailing....

I see Wessels' point about trying to use a big regatta to stimulate growth in the fleets. I've been inviting as many Hobie sailors as I can reach in our area to our local Shreveport Yacht Club regattas to try to grow interest here. By the way, our fall regatta is Oct 23-24, we're shaping up to have a decent Portsmouth catamaran fleet. Please pass the word, contact me at the email address in my profile and I'll send you the NOR. Here's an opportunity for you to put some more miles on your vehicle, Karl.

It seems there's a dedicated cadre that will travel huge distances to a good race. I applaud Karl's efforts. But for many of us, taking two days to travel to a regatta and two days back, plus the time actually spend at the venue, isn't practical. For example, I lobbied hard to get a group of Division 14 H20 sailors to travel to MWE in Pascagoula last year and none made it to the race. I'm not dogging them, I understand that people have other things going on in their lives besides sailing. I don't travel as much or as far as I'd like to. Nevertheless, using Tulsa as an example, Ft Lauderdale is nearly twice as far for a Div 14 sailor to drive than Pascagoula was.

If all goes well we'll put together a fleet in Shreveport over the winter and host our inaugural regatta sometime in 2011. I doubt our first event will be on the scale of a Mid-Winters, but I hope that Eaton and Brogger and everyone they can convince to come with them will participate. You'll all get an invitation. If someone from Ft Lauderdale shows up their crawfish is on me!